El Perro Del Mar

Sarah Assbring is a Swedish woman, from the very musical city of Gothenburg, who records as El Perro Del Mar (which translates to “The Dog of the Sea”). I don’t think “ass” means the same thing to the Swedes as it does to us Americans, but nonetheless, she has the voice of a person who has been through… something. This pick definitely falls into the “3hive better late than never” collection, since her album has been making the rounds for some time now and before the album she was collaborating with Jens Lekman, but its time now. High time. El Perro Del Mar is all about keeping it a little offbeat–she has a non-traditional voice (haunted, a little rough, singing like she’s *this close* to a breakdown even when she’s singing “lalalalala”), she’s old school in a way that not many are these days and she named herself “El Perro Del Mar”–but she’s also really tethered to the ideal of making music that people want to, and love to, listen to. Bonus points for the sweetest little animated music video that side of the Atlantic. Seriously, I dare you not to like this video. I double. dog. dare. you.

awesome! I sent an email to the 3hive suggestion box about el perro del mar and her old label, hybris (http://www.hybrism.com/), but that was many many months ago and I had a feeling it got lost in the vast abyss of cyberspace or something. definitely like you said though, it’s better late than never!
hybris is a pretty awesome label when it comes to oh-so-delicious swedish music, as is hapna records (http://www.hapna.com). especially this group called “tape”, who actually discovered through solo andata, who I discovered through 3hive, so it all comes back to you in the end. this is why you are my heroes.
peace!
a